Updated 12.20pm with consultant's reaction

Asad Shukat Ali, who Vitals Global Healthcare Ltd has occasionally engaged as consultant, received tens of thousands of euros in payments in a Pilatus Bank account, Times of Malta has learnt.

Documents seen by this newspaper show that Mr Shukat Ali opened an account at the Ta’ Xbiex bank in the name of one of his companies, Planetcore Malta Ltd, when the government was negotiating with Vitals.

The government has agreed to grant running the Gozo General, Karin Grech and St Luke’s hospitals to Vitals for 30 years and will pay about €60 million annually for medical services from the private company.

When asked about the role Mr Shukat Ali occupied in the group, a spokeswoman for Vitals pointed out that he was neither a shareholder nor an employee.

She noted that “from time to time, Mr Shukat Ali is engaged by VGH as an external international business development consultant”.

However, documents at the MFSA show Asad Shukat Ali as a shareholder in Crossrange Holdings Ltd, which is a shareholder in Bluestone Investment Malta Ltd, the company which owns Vitals.

With no track record in healthcare, Vitals is owned by a group of companies controlled by Bluestone Investments Malta Ltd.

Bluestone is, in turn, connected to a series of other companies – Crossrange Holdings Ltd, Gozo Global Healthcare Ltd and Gozo International Medicare Ltd – in which Mr Shukat Ali is a shareholder.

On its part, Bluestone is owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.

The payments made to Mr Shukat Ali’s company account at Pilatus Bank were in connection to “consultancy commissions” and “allowances” as negotiations between Vitals and the government proceeded, according to the documents.

When the bank enquired the source of the funds, Planetcore Malta Ltd replied in a letter that Mr Shukat Ali was responsible for the operations of the company and the funds were related to his role.

Contacted by this newspaper, Mr Shukat Ali at first dismissed that he has any shareholding connection to Vitals Global Healthcare, although he said that Ram Tumulri – the person appearing on behalf of Vitals was his friend.

When confronted with offical data showing that he is a shareholder of a company which has a shareholding in Bluestone, he said that “that is the old structure, which is now changed.”

The data on MFSA records does not record the changes mentioned by Mr Shukat Ali. He also admitted that through another company, he had a Pilatus Bank account but said that this had nothing to do with Vitals.

Last week, when the Nationalist Party raised a possible connection between Vitals and accounts in Pilatus Bank, the group issued a statement that denied any link.

“None of our owners, directors or members of management have, or ever had bank accounts with Pilatus Bank,” the Vitals Group said.

Pilatus Bank has been mentioned several times in recent weeks in connection with suspicions raised by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit about money-laundering activities by politically exposed persons, particularly the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri.

The matter is now the subject of a number of magisterial inquiries.

VGH denies any links with Pilatus

VGH said it strongly denies having any links to Pilatus Bank, insisting it has always made all information about its ownership structure known to the media and the public since the first day it took over the hospitals in June 2016.

Since then, the company has continued to respond to all questions from the media and in October 2016 also presented its due diligence documentation.

In a statement, Vitals Global Healthcare said it is not owned by Crossrange Holdings Ltd as stated by Times of Malta, nor is it owned by Gozo Global Healthcare Ltd or Gozo International Medicare Ltd.

The shareholding information of Vitals Global Healthcare is publicly accessible via the online portal of the Malta Registry of Companies. VGH also said that there is no relationship between VGH and Planet Core Malta.

No 'personal' accounts with Pilatus

In another statement, Mr Ali said he never held personal bank accounts with Pilatus Bank.

Mr Ali said he worked for Planetcore Malta as a chief executive officer and the account with Pilatus bank was held by Planetcore.

Planetcore, he said, is a large scale diversified group with more than 10,000 people across 32 offices in 16 countries, and is one of the largest education companies in India and the Middle East.

Mr Ali said he is engaged from time to time by VGH to provide consultancy services as an independent international business consultant and that he has no shareholding interest in VGH.

"Mr Ali confirms and reiterates that there is no relation between Planetcore, including its bank account with Pilatus Bank, and VGH."